Screen to Speed: Emma Galasso

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction to Screen to Speed
• 01:00 Meet the Host and Special Guest
• 02:42 Emma’s Sim Racing Journey
• 07:11 Challenges and Learning in Sim Racing
• 14:06 Favorite Cars and Sim Racing Games
• 18:15 The Importance of Community and Clean Racing
• 22:39 Sim Racing Equipment and Setup Tips
• 31:26 Documenting the Sim Racing Journey on TikTok
• 41:22 Finding the Right Racing Technique
• 42:05 Qualifying Race Preparation
• 44:12 Challenges and Favorite Tracks
• 48:17 Racing Events and Experiences
• 57:29 Sim Racing Goals and Community
• 01:12:15 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by INIT eSports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, Dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports. So buckle up, Screen to Speed starts now.

Elz Indriani: I see many people here joining. Welcome everyone. Welcome to the 21st episode of Indie Talks. Oh my God. Very nice to have you all [00:01:00] here today. I’m Els, the host, and today we have a special guest. Why I’m saying it’s special because, uh, we have Emma right now and she is, um, currently competing in the US online qualifier for the upcoming global e sports games.

Guess what? Global e sports games. Hi. Hi Emma, hi hi, very nice to have you here today in the Indie Talks. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, thank you for having me. I’m happy to be here.

Elz Indriani: I’m super happy. So, how are you doing today? Happy almost weekend, by the way.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, yeah. It’s a good day. Busy day.

I’m actually like taking this on my lunch break, so it’s still work to do after this, but it’s a dreary day outside, so glad to be here doing this. Something exciting.

Elz Indriani: Oh, wow. Okay, so she’s having an interview during the lunch break. Okay. That’s very efficient. Yeah, you know. That’s very [00:02:00] efficient. Okay, I will try to turn it up.

And let me know if my sound is slightly better now. So I put my microphone a little bit closer to my mouth. A very good lunch break. Like, imagine guys, doing a podcast while having a lunch break. I don’t know if I could ever do that.

Emma Galasso: It’s all good.

Elz Indriani: Oh my God, by the way, DTR underscore cars, by the way. Hi, hi.

Welcome to in the box. Very nice to have you here today and ash. Hi. Hi. Welcome in. Welcome in ash. Welcome. I have a new friend joining the unit box today, Emma, and she’s playing a lot in ACC. So disclaimer, this unit box will be all about ACC and we will talk more about Emma, what she does in simracing, and maybe you can tell me a bit about what you do on daily basis.

Like, are you like a full time simracer, or [00:03:00] are you like having another things to do outside, outside the gaming world, I must

Emma Galasso: say. Oh yeah, I’m definitely not a full time simracer. I would say it’s very much a hobby for me, but something that I’ve been doing. Pursuing about every day. I definitely drive every day for like the past three years or so.

Um, but I do work in the automotive industry. Now I originally worked in the film industry, though I made the switch actually a couple months ago. So now I work, um, as a brand partnerships coordinator, um, with an automotive company. So I get to work with cars every day, which is pretty exciting. But, um, I got into sim racing.

I originally did Formula One 2021, which I would not recommend, uh, learning how to sim drive on that game, but that’s what I did. And that’s how I got the bug and, um, I’ve just been playing ever since. And I’ve been very lucky to make a lot of friends in e sports, a lot of friends in the motorsport world that has all just kind of helped, [00:04:00] um, this become something that I like to pursue.

Elz Indriani: Yeah. So every day. Your world is all about sea racing, motor sport from the day you wake up and until the day like you’re going to bed, you’re about to sleep every day, every time. It’s all about cars. I must say.

Emma Galasso: It’s all about cars now, which is, which is pretty exciting. So I get the opportunity to drive a lot of cool cars and talk to people about cars.

I’m certainly not a petrolhead myself. I I really try appreciate cars. I love them a lot. Um. But it’s really cool to work at a place where everyone else is Incredibly knowledgeable and passionate. So

Elz Indriani: yeah, I feel like sim racing and motorsport is like a great place to be Like it’s a really great community.

Everybody is like very helpful if you have question even even if it’s a dumb question people will Oh, yeah try their best, you know to help

Emma Galasso: you Probably two years to figure out [00:05:00] How to actually communicate, like break bias stuff. Right. The percentages, it just, it didn’t make sense to me. There’s a lot of stuff that still doesn’t make sense.

I’m still learning every single day, but I have found the sim racing community to be extremely welcoming. I was a little bit nervous about that at first, um, because I, I used to play a lot of call of duty. And it wasn’t quite a great place for women at the time. Um, but so I was a little bit nervous coming to sim racing, but I have.

Just absolutely met some of the best people, um, I’m in like the, one of the best leagues I could possibly ever imagine having found, um, And it’s just been a blast so far.

Elz Indriani: Right, yeah, um, at first when I want to switch my career path, I must say, getting into the gaming industry, I was, I was like really really nervous.

I was so afraid because everybody knows that This industry is all about boys. It’s a man’s world something like that, you know, and it kind of [00:06:00] scares me at first but yeah throughout the time I feel like I found a lot of great people and Surprisingly, I found like a lot of girls here like who likes to play and I was like i’m feeling more safe That’s how I feel, you know, not that more safe, but it’s more like welcoming You

Emma Galasso: And I like about sim racing is so much of it.

Um, you have to build your own community in a way. I did a lot of like pot lapping and just as you know, driving by myself, but you’re not going to be as good of a racer if you’re not actually racing everyone.

Elz Indriani: So I

Emma Galasso: had to kind of branch out and find my own league. Um, and you know, there’s plenty of leagues that I just knew were not going to be for me.

And then I found the one that I’m in and I’ve raced with other people now, and it was just a great place to. To get started, um, one that was rookie friendly because I was terrible when I first started sim racing, it was really bad. Um, and you know, it’s been cool to see the growth of not only my own driving, but everyone in my league as [00:07:00] well.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, same here. Trust me, when I first got into this, I have no idea about a racecraft. I don’t understand the concept of understeer, oversteer. I’m like, what is that?

Emma Galasso: Yeah, I mean, it was like learning a whole new language, like literally and figuratively you have to learn so much about yourself and how you drive and how, like, I’m a notoriously late breaker and you’ll see in my telemetry all the time that I’m really fast on entry and terrible on exit, which is not how you’re supposed to drive, that’s how I instinctually drive.

Um, so it’s a lot of analyzing yourself and analyzing your own data. But then there’s also other people on track, so you can’t hit other people. Um, so yeah, it’s been a great, an amazing learning experience and I’m so glad I started doing it.

Elz Indriani: Yeah. Cause I feel like sim racing is one of the hobby that is like that.

I don’t know. I feel like sim racing has a deep learning curve, so it takes time for everyone to [00:08:00] actually get good at it. So maybe that’s also the reason why I’m staying in this hobby for it. quite a long time, like four or five years now, I think. Because every day, like, I’m learning something new. Every day, I feel like I’m a newbie.

I’m learning something. Oh, this is new, you know?

Emma Galasso: Yeah, like every track, you can always just try a new track you’ve never driven before, and there’s something you’re gonna learn about the track. You can always just change cars. It’s, it’s really cool.

Elz Indriani: Yeah. And speaking about the sim racing part of your life, um, which, uh, which game or sim that you play most?

Emma Galasso: Um, driving time definitely be the original Assetto Corsa. My league is all on Assetto Corsa, but recently I’ve also been doing ACC a lot. Um, so I did the Ferrari Esports Series. Um, and I, I didn’t make it past the qualifier for the U. S. I made it past the hot lap [00:09:00] portion, which was a, uh, A huge achievement for me because I’m not that fast, but um, and it was good in the race I finished p7 in both of my races, but only I think the top Two from each one went.

I definitely didn’t make it, you know, but it was good to, that was my first real taste of being competitive on ACC and Apparently ACC just suits my driving style a lot better. I do have iRacing too, but I am just not, I’m not a fan of the MX 5 and I know I have to like get through that stage to get Further in iRacing, so it’s been, and I have my league races every week, so I focus on my league races when I have time, or if I’m doing a competition like this, I focus on that.

So,

Elz Indriani: iRacing’s

Emma Galasso: definitely there. I was lucky enough to, actually the Canadian eSports Federation, I think they’re still doing it actually, US citizens and Canadians can get iRacing for a year for a 10 donation to the So I just donated [00:10:00] 10 and got free iRacing, free, free iRacing for a year. Um, so it’s been great to just be able to try it out.

And I definitely want to get more into it, but it takes, it takes a while.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, because I think for me, it was quite a challenge to switch from ACC to iRacing back and forth. I cannot do that.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, I think that, I mean, The way that I approach it, I just am kind of just assuming I’m not going to be great at either.

So I just enjoy a different game. There’s definitely stuff to learn. Like I, I’m not good with tires and I racing at all. I will pretty much, I’m so used to just like stomping it out of the pits and AC that the first time and I just destroyed my tires before I even left the pit lane. Um, so yeah, I’m, and I definitely don’t race enough to, to be able to speak on it, but it’s right.

Moving from AC to ACC is a huge switch, too. Um, because AC you’re dealing with very old stuff, even with mods, which I have [00:11:00] plenty of mods in. Um, but I don’t know, something about ACC just kind of clicks with my driving. But, yeah, I drive AC more.

Elz Indriani: More on AC. Right, right. And here even still very good, the result.

Yeah, I mean, I don’t know, um, I know some drivers are getting into a leak race or a big Event trying to win but I like to Take it as one step at a time, you know

Emma Galasso: Oh, yeah, I when I started sim racing I knew I’m a lot I started three years ago from nothing So it was like I knew I was not going to be winning any races I didn’t even know what a racing line was.

I had a general idea I’ve been around racing kind of but I would watch Formula One as a kid And it was like, oh, that’s really cool You But I didn’t pay attention to any of that stuff. I could not tell you Monza T1. I didn’t know anything about that. Nothing. Um, so starting sim racing has really been, it was a humbling [00:12:00] experience for sure, because I don’t like to be bad at things, but I had to be bad for a really long time.

And honestly, my goal was always just finish the race for the first three or four seasons of my racing league. All my focus was finishing. Even just finishing the race, I was still picking people off because some people would just like quit or just not finish the race for whatever reason. Um, I’ve only not finished one race and that was because, um, I accidentally got my connector cable between my, um, direct drive wheel and my pedals caught between the pedals.

So every time I put on the brakes I was trying to sever the brake. So that didn’t work. I had a mechanical failure in real life. So yeah, I just always tell people, like, don’t, don’t worry about winning. Like, that’s why my league is so cool. Just because the community is so great that we’re just having a good time racing, you know, it’s just fun and exciting and it’s still, [00:13:00] still very competitive, but it’s not crazy.

Elz Indriani: But honestly, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s nice to set the goal as finishing the race, especially if you just start getting into it. Because I feel like a lot of people are focusing a lot on the win, even if this is a new sim for them. It’s a new game, it’s just released and they just like focusing on that. But yeah, focusing on finishing the race is a great start to step up your game.

That’s how I see it, you know.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, absolutely. And I, my other goal was don’t crash anyone out. And then my very first league race ever,

Elz Indriani: I,

Emma Galasso: I thought I was on the racing line, but apparently I wasn’t. We were at Laguna Seca. And I was getting lapped, and the two guys in the lead were fighting, and I accidentally got in their way, and I wrecked one of them out and took away his only win, so.

Oh my

Elz Indriani: gosh, yeah. But everybody made mistakes, okay?

Emma Galasso: Everybody. Yeah, yeah, and I was just like, and that was like, I was like, I am so sorry, I can’t believe I did that to you, and [00:14:00] we still joke about it now, three years later, like.

Elz Indriani: We still joke about it. Oh, here, Ash is asking in the chat, favorite car to drive on ACC?

That’s a good question.

Emma Galasso: For me, it’s definitely the Ferrari. I got so used to it from the Ferrari E sport series that, I don’t know, I really like it. Um, the Mustang has been interesting to, I had to completely kind of relearn my driving style for that car. It’s very interesting. Same. And I would say probably my least favorite is the McLaren, just because for whatever reason it just does not work for my driving style very well, so Ferrari for sure.

Or the Porsche. I like the Porsche.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I like the Porsche. Yeah. But I haven’t, I haven’t actually like tried driving fast the Mustang, and yeah. It’s interesting. Yeah. It’s definitely interesting. I only drive the Mustang on iRacing, and Well in I racing, I feel like the Mustang is so dead in the rain, but I [00:15:00] don’t know how it drives in, in a CC.

Maybe it’s a good car. Maybe it’s, to me,

Emma Galasso: I just came out of A-A-T-C-R series and a set of corset and the driving style is similar enough to TCRs actually, for me anyway. Right. But I, that’s how I’ve been able to kind of like get a hold of it a little bit. But it’s very different. It, it’s been a, a steep learning curve.

’cause I’ve never driven the Mustang before this.

Elz Indriani: Is it like a big challenge for you for now? Cause for the US online qualifier, I believe we’ll be driving the Mustang

Emma Galasso: in Kota. Yeah. Um, yeah, so it is, is Mustang and Kota. So, um, yeah, I just, you know, I was actually practicing Kota in the Ferrari and then when it was announced that it was a Mustang had to make the switch.

So

Elz Indriani: it’s

Emma Galasso: worked out. I mean, I’m definitely now I’m faster in the Mustang than I was in the Ferrari on this track, but I haven’t done a lot of Kota. Uh, Hot lapping in ACC, but I thankfully already knew the track because we raced it a bunch in my league So it was nice not to [00:16:00] have to, you know, kind of learn the track as well Yeah, it’s it’s come around and once you get the hang of it You can kind of adjust your driving style to suit it a little bit more Which is what I’m still trying to do and still trying to find Plenty of time.

There’s plenty of time to be found.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I mean looking at the pro driver You Like the pro eSports driver, they spend like 10 hours in the sim, like doing like a lot of drive, hundreds or thousands of laps. So, yeah, we’ll get there eventually. Everybody, all of us will get there, guys. All of us will get our pro license one day.

Mm hmm, for sure.

Emma Galasso: It’s all about, like, to me, it’s like, you can always improve, and that’s the cool thing about sim racing. Even the guy who is Or girl. Hey girl. In the first place, period. Could always find time. Um, there’s always a way to find the new limit. And you know, ACC, every time there’s a new patch,

Elz Indriani: you

Emma Galasso: gotta get your time set to see if you’re still the [00:17:00] fastest in that car.

So, interesting.

Elz Indriani: Yeah. The updates is kind of like stressing the drivers sometimes. Especially like, I know someone, um, who compete in the past. In the first screen to speed. Okay. So basically we were having the screen to speed in Las Vegas two years ago, I believe. And yeah, it was like basically the first event for the girls to have like an offline event, like you’re racing on the side with the same racing setup and everything.

And I know there’s like one girl who is like really quick on ACC. She’s more like an ACC driver. And yeah, she was like, she told me like, um, You know what? I’m so stressed out. Every time I’m having this, um, big event, like big, big event on ACC coming, and then there’s a patch update, everybody will stress out.

Like, they need to redo the setup and everything. Like, oh God, it’s so stressful.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, that’s where it’s like when you’re [00:18:00] pro level, you know, every single little setup change can make such a difference. And, um, When you’re not as good, you can just, you know, there’s so many fundamentals. If you just have the fundamentals down, you can get a pretty good lap time.

And then the fine tuning stuff is where you can really get thrown off by that. Cause I did the Porsche e sports challenge as well. Um, and that was an in person, they had online qualifiers, but it was also in person. So you had to go to the Porsche experience center and they had, um, a PS4 set up with Gran Turismo, um, and a Fanatec set up, and you had to just, Um, and then you can just jump in the rig and try to set your best time on basically new equipment or unfamiliar equipment.

So I encourage people if, if there’s any like free events like that around you to try that because it’s really good to like practice being in high, I guess a high stress, high excitement environment and still see if you can set the laugh time. Cause it definitely affected, I was two seconds faster at my house and then I went and I was a lot slower, but [00:19:00] um, eventually, you know, got around to it.

But.

Elz Indriani: Right. But I think you, me, and everyone who race in the script to Speed Vegas are lucky because we get to experience that. Because it’s not like every day you get like an offline event or we can go to an offline event. And what I learned in this offline event is that the game is not just about driving fast, but who can adapt to the setup quickly.

Absolutely. Like, that’s more like the game than just trying to drive fast for me. And I feel like I’m so noob on that. Like, I have more experience.

Emma Galasso: It’s the same with kind of, like, hot lapping versus racing as well. Like, I started and I was only doing hot laps. You know, I really thought I was getting good and whatever.

And then I joined my first race and as soon as there’s other cars or other actual people are driving them, I It’s completely different. So that’s why people always told me join a league as fast as you can And I was like, no, I have to be faster first [00:20:00] And if I could put up anything like don’t wait just join a league You will learn race craft and you’ll also be getting faster and it’ll really help you in the long run.

Elz Indriani: That’s it Yeah, I couldn’t agree more on that like really at first I was like too afraid to race against people because I was like having this mindset I got to be fast first to be able to race You know, but trust me everyone here in the chat. It’s not the right mindset sometimes you just have to throw yourself into the race because in the end the The experience that you get on the track when you’re racing is the most important It’s more important than just doing a hot lap in a solo practice you

Emma Galasso: Yep.

Absolutely. And like what it’s a tire dag and stuff like that. Like we’ve had races where it was so much fun because everyone’s tires were absolutely gone. So hiding around, you had to just see who was going to survive the race. And it just adds another element to it.

Elz Indriani: Right. And by the way, I want to get back into our conversation earlier, [00:21:00] because you are saying that you’re starting from F1 2021.

And then you’re, you’re saying that it’s not really recommended for everyone, um, who wants to get into sim racing kind of thing. But I think in my, cause I’m starting from Gran Turismo event. So basically both of us, we can say that we are starting from the sim cave and then we are moving to the sim, let’s say.

Yeah. And I feel like the sim cave can be a great start for everyone. Yeah. Like,

Emma Galasso: yeah, I, I agree with that. I think that, um, I honestly think that Gran Turismo could be better than, I mean, it depends, I mean, I, I got into it as I liked Formula One, but at the same time, I have not driven a Formula One car in a race sense.

Um, I think it’s just helpful to like, I don’t know. It’s whatever you want to do. Whatever’s going to motivate you. Cause it’s time in the seat. I mean, I remember I wanted to get good at every single Formula One track. [00:22:00] And I wanted to be, they had like the online leaderboard and it was like you could be in, it would tell you what percentage you were in.

I was like, I’m going to be top 50 percent for every single track. And then I want to be top 40. And then I want to be top 30. And I kept doing that. And I went about my training, I guess all wrong. Like I literally was like, I’m going to do turn one of Bahrain. 100 times in a row and like see if I could do it and I literally had a whiteboard and I was like writing down My time every single time.

Oh my god So like it doesn’t help you like you need to do the whole track because part of it is flow and like all this stuff But you know, I was still way more like I was so motivated to do that So it was it ended up being a good thing. So I would say if there’s whether it’s a simcade or like it’s a You know something like iRacing or something It’s whatever motivates you to to get in the seat and drive can be useful for sure because the fundamentals don’t change I mean you either know the racing line or you don’t and it doesn’t matter what game you’re playing You’re gonna be pretty fast either way

Elz Indriani: It’s true [00:23:00] as long people as long you’re having fun in it.

That’s the most important thing It doesn’t matter like if people say like on the internet outside They’re like saying this game is better that game is better in my opinion. Just do what you want just, and

Emma Galasso: so many equipment too. People, so many people that I’ve talked to are like, oh, I need a good setup.

I need to have X, Y, Z before I start. You def, I mean, it definitely helps. Like I started with a, a Logitech G 29 and that was my, my wheel and I had like a really basic, basic setup.

Elz Indriani: Mm-hmm . And then

Emma Galasso: I was lucky enough that, um. My, actually my co workers gifted me a Fanatec setup, so I didn’t even have to pay for it, which was amazing.

Can I be

Elz Indriani: friends with your co

Emma Galasso: workers? I did not expect that at all. Yeah,

Elz Indriani: yeah. Oh my god,

Emma Galasso: your co workers. Since then, it’s been like, you know, as soon as you get a load cell pedal, that’s what I always tell people. If you’re going to upgrade anything, a load cell pedal is the, load cell brakes is the [00:24:00] best thing to start with.

But, people are like convinced that they’re not fast because they don’t have You know, the top of the line SimCube setup and stuff. And I’m like, it doesn’t matter. There are people who are e sports professionals who are racing on a Logitech

Elz Indriani: G29. I

Emma Galasso: know one of them who won like a competition just with a Logitech G29.

You can do it. You just, you got to learn it. It’s like anything else. I mean, every Sim has things that aren’t realistic to real life. Um, you kind of have to exploit those. And it’s the same with the equipment. Like you can make it work. It’s the motivation. That’s all it is.

Elz Indriani: I agree with you on that. Like, yeah, I mean, when I first won my championship on ACC, I was pretty much using like, not like a budget wheel, but pretty much an entry level.

I was using the Thrustmaster T300 and I mount the wheel to like a hospital tray that I bought on Amazon. Like I’m just trying my best to make it work [00:25:00] because I want to race in the end. And I won my championship then. It’s more like, I’m proving it to myself like, yeah, you don’t need an expensive or fancy equipment to win a race.

It’s just, I don’t know, it sounds like an excuse to me. I’m sorry. Not like excuse, but yeah, you know. Sure.

Emma Galasso: My mentality when I started was like, I just needed I mean, some people do it with controller too, but for me I wanted to actually learn like the Not everyone can afford even, you know, a Logitech G29, so don’t get me wrong there.

But, I would say like if you, if you can, like having a wheel and pedals is actually teaching you stuff. Because then when you go to real track experiences, It’s kind of crazy because even though the feeling is not the same, because obviously the g forces are really there and stuff, it looks pretty much the same out the dashboard window.

And so your brain just kind of like registers it similarly to when you’re in the sim. Um, and then your hand eye coordination kind of goes with the steering. So I found it to be [00:26:00] pretty helpful when I did, I did one track day. So,

Elz Indriani: yeah, yeah. In real life, um, yeah, there’s a lot of things that cannot break my focus in real life because I tried life.

Not like a track day, but I tried like driving around the track sometimes, or one or two times. Sometimes I feel like, yeah, you can feel the g force, which for me, kind of helps me to feel the speed going into the corner. While in sim, I have to rely on my eyes to see if I’m fast or not. Which, yeah. But, sometimes I feel like the movement when I’m like driving fast, the movement is kind of breaks my focus.

You know what I mean? Like, the g force, everything.

Emma Galasso: I don’t think about it, but when I’m driving in my sim, I lean at the turns. I really hate that I do it still. I don’t know why, but you can tell when I’m getting frustrated because I really start to lean over when the turns don’t work and instead of just like adjusting my braking and not getting understeer, I just assume that leaning is gonna just really help.

Elz Indriani: Really helps you in [00:27:00] the sim. Yeah. Winning is a, is a state of mind. Yeah. I feel like. There’s a lot of aspect in racing. I feel like the more I’m doing race, doing a race, the more I realize it’s not just about winning. There are one race that you just focus on learning how to drive around the track.

There’s a race that just goes wrong. Everything just wrong. So you just focus on survival, crossing the finish line. So like, there’s like a lot of aspect in racing and maybe some people can win every time, but to me, you can’t win every time.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, we’ve had, we had an endurance series, so we did the 2.

4 hours of Le Mans. Just being able to complete that race, like, it was a work night, whatever, just got home and I knew I was going to be driving for the next two plus hours. Um, I don’t even remember what I placed in that race. I probably [00:28:00] did pretty close to last, but it was still, like, an accomplishment. I was still, like, Gross and like finish the race.

And I was like, that was pretty cool.

I mean, like in my league, it’s not even, it’s not usually the same winner, but there’s like the same five or six guys who win every time and it’s really fun for them, but also back in the mid pack, like we have an am championship and stuff like that, so we’re just, we just make it our own kind of competition.

And I’m pretty competitive, but I know my, I know I’m not gonna win in my league right now. I need to get a little bit faster. But it’s still, things can feel like a win that aren’t actually a win.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, things can feel like a win. ’cause I’ve won a race and I’ve messed up my race. Okay. I’ve had a good race, I’ve had a bad race.

When I, when I win a race, I’ll be happy for one hour, two hour, like celebrating like, oh my God. Feeling ecstatic like that. But [00:29:00] after that, okay, that’s it, you know, but I feel like when I had a good race a good battle It feels more memorable To me than winning the race. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t want to win Yeah,

Emma Galasso: like I think about I’m thinking we had a race at Watkins in GT4s And I was just racing against, um, one of my friends in my league and I was pretty new and I had never been able to match his pace before, but we had like an amazing battle all through Watkins for like lap after lap.

And it was so much fun. And it was like, I still think about that battle all the time. And it’s just like, I don’t know. I don’t even remember what we placed. It doesn’t matter, but I don’t even remember who won the fight, honestly, because it was just so much fun. Afterward, we were both just like, we both really learned from it, which was.

The win for us, we were both like, that was an awesome fight. Like it was great. And um, so yeah, we took our win there. It didn’t really matter what happened on track.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, [00:30:00] exactly. Remember you go faster when you lean forward. A hundred percent. Trust me, bro. No. In simracing, you will go faster when you push your wheel.

Okay, question. When you guys simracing, do you push your wheel or do you guys pull your wheel? It’s a question for everyone. And that’s for you, Emma. Do you feel it like when you’re driving?

Emma Galasso: I don’t know. I mean, I have a play seat, so I have, like, a direct drive wheel stuck on a play seat, so it’s, like, very I wouldn’t call it unstable, but it’s not the most stable thing.

I probably push on my wheel more than pull.

Elz Indriani: Yeah,

Emma Galasso: I

Elz Indriani: think I’m pushing. Yeah, I push more than pull. Right, right, right. Yeah, I see on your TikTok. Oh, by the way, guys, Emma is on TikTok. So if you want to see a simracing content, and she’s also posting her simracing setup. Right? I think it’s been on your TikTok, I believe, when you’re like, on top of the post.[00:31:00]

Yeah. If you guys want to see more simracing content on TikTok, or if you guys want to see, like, who are the female content creator, simracing content creator on TikTok, Emma is one of them. So give a follow. Emma, can you share your TikTok? Do you mind sharing your TikTok to us?

Emma Galasso: Yeah, I actually have to remember what it is.

I created my TikTok so that I could just document my sim racing journey.

Elz Indriani: True.

Emma Galasso: Um, so I think Just

Elz Indriani: using TikTok like a diary, like a sim racing diary journal.

Emma Galasso: It’s really cool because I will forget what I did and then I go back and then I’m like, oh, wow, I was really slow back then. Um, I don’t know if I, if it’s going to be able to be visible on the screen, but it’s Belissima.

So, B E L I S I M A. S S E M M A dot racing.

Elz Indriani: Bellissima dot racing. Yeah, so that’s the TikTok. It’s not a website, guys, that’s the username. So if you guys wanna [00:32:00] follow Emma on TikTok, that’s the username. And yeah, she’s posting her simracing setup. She’s sharing a lot on TikTok, more than me and everyone else, I feel like.

Cause, I don’t know, I don’t get the TikTok. Why are you choosing TikTok?

Emma Galasso: Um, I don’t like, I tried to do Instagram too, and I just don’t like it. Um, I can just record it and overlay my video and be done with it. And if there’s like a more of a casual, I mean, I personally don’t even use TikTok. Actually, I don’t watch videos on TikTok.

Um, I just upload there. Like I, I’m pretty, I’m not an advocate for TikTok actually. But I just make my videos and post it there and I can talk about whatever I want. If I wanted to do, I used to, like, I was gaining a lot of momentum last year on TikTok and I stopped doing it because the work kind of got in the way and then, you know, fell off a cliff.

But I was posting videos where I was just talking about my laps and didn’t even have a lap overlay or anything. [00:33:00] And people weren’t moving with that just as much as they do when I show my laps, um, which I don’t think would be the case on Instagram. And YouTube takes a lot of editing time, stuff like that.

TikTok, I’ve got it kind of down. Um, and there’s just so much, I just feel like you have to be so involved with other social media platforms. And my goal isn’t to be like a content creator necessarily. Like I just wanted to document my journey because when I was searching for Sim drivers, it was always people who are really good.

And like, you’re watching someone do like a crazy lap and you’re like, okay, cool. And then you try it and you’re eight seconds slower. And it’s like, well, then I must just not be cut out for this. So I wanted to create a channel that kind of shows the progress. Like, you will not see me winning races on my TikTok, sorry.

Maybe someday, but I’m always just, like, trying to beat my own best time. You know, I’m definitely comparing my time to other people and stuff, but it’s just focusing on my own growth and documenting my races in my league [00:34:00] that nobody knows about or really, you know, cares about because it’s not like a major esports thing or anything.

It’s just my friends. But a lot of people seem to really enjoy it, um, and there’s definitely I feel like there’s just not too many female creators in the motorsports space in general. It’s a very small kind of group. And so I’m also just an advocate for women in motorsports. So the more visibility, the better.

Um, so I kind of created the, the TikTok just so I could have something for myself, mostly for myself, just to look back on, but also if other people can enjoy it and find inspiration in it. Like people are always trying to beat my time, which isn’t that difficult. So. Please do. But, um, yeah, it’s just cool to see.

And then I talked to the same people and they helped me out with labs and stuff. So it’s just another way to build the community.

Elz Indriani: Yeah. I feel like, I don’t know. I feel like the way you explain, like, why are you making a TikTok account? Why are you posting a video? It makes me feeling relatable, you know, [00:35:00] cause yeah, you see a lot of good drivers, but you should remember that those top drivers are the top 1 percent of Millions of people who got into sim racing.

So it means that most of us, we are quick. We know how to drive, but it’s different, you know, like it’s on a different level. So sometimes people are stressed out about the race. You know what I mean? Like, Oh my God, I’m not fast. I’m not a pro. Something like that. Cause yeah, I don’t know. For me, just making like.

Yeah, everyone feels relatable because in the end we’re like, we are messing up our race and yes Everybody is on their journey to become a pro.

Emma Galasso: Like you’ll see clips on my tiktok of me just Spinning out like I don’t spin out Even that’s cool because I can go back and be like, wow, I couldn’t even finish a lap before and now I like You know, I just totally messed up in this race and I, I don’t have like the cool, like, Oh, it overtook two people in one corner thing like that doesn’t happen [00:36:00] to me.

I just like happened to avoid people spinning out in front of me or something. And, um, that’s another thing I always encourage people to do is like, just try to have a clean race, because if you can just have a clean race, you can pick off everyone who, even if they’re two seconds faster than you, every lab, if they’re two seconds faster than you and they spin out and they’re out for 30 seconds trying to get back on track, like you still beat that person.

Yeah.

Elz Indriani: That is super true Clean racing is yeah, because it doesn’t matter if you’re fast and then you mess up the next lap Everybody is gonna pass you anyway Yeah For your fastest ferrari setup visit melissimondo. racing That’s so hard. They’re making it sounds like it’s an ad Yeah,

Emma Galasso: I definitely probably wouldn’t trust my Ferraris.

I definitely, I’m trying to think of it right now, because right now I’m in the Mustang zone and I’m just, I can’t even remember my brake bias.[00:37:00]

The most useful thing for the Ferrari for ACC that I can remember is to set your steering, uh, Setting 16. Yeah, the steering ratio to 16 and then your wheel, um, degrees 800. Oh yeah.

Elz Indriani: Oh yeah, I forgot. I think ACC has like a different wheel angle or, or wheel rotation kind of thing.

Emma Galasso: It’s very for, big apparently, like I really, like I had to change my mind a lot for the Mustang and I was like, wow, I can’t get the car to turn in.

And my friend was like, yeah, what’s your, what’s your, what’s your, Real angle and I was like, oh, it’s 800. He was like, yeah, that’s way too high. . So there’s like stuff you have to change. But like I said, I’m not a pro, I don’t sit like, I mean, okay. I shouldn’t say that. I do tweak my setup as I go. Mm-hmm . Most well, like when I have been getting a certain lap time and then I’m not getting it anymore with the same setup and then it makes me mad, then I like change something kind of, I, I do it a little bit too drastically, but I change something.

So just to [00:38:00] get my brain in the mode of like, I have to learn how to be fast again, because it just helps me. Like if I, you know, mess with the anti roll bar or totally mess with the brake bias, and then I have to like, all of a sudden the car is not behaving the way it was before it gets my brain into the sense of like, okay, you’re still learning, like you have to get into like an absorption mode.

So I usually do that and then get mad again and then switch back to my original setup and it kind of works.

Elz Indriani: Uh, wait, Jacob. Hey, by the way. Hey, Jacob. I didn’t see you there. I’m sorry. Hi, Jacob. Very nice to have you here today. Welcome to Innit Talks. So, you’re saying the only race that ever truly matters is the one you run is against yourself.

True. To be that little bit better than you were yesterday. It’s more like trying to beat yourself. That’s how I feel. It’s all in your mind.

Emma Galasso: Like for the Ferrari E Sports Challenge, we were doing a Hot Lap Challenge at Brands Hatch in ACC, [00:39:00] and I was trying to break out of the 124s. Um, I was at like a 124.

00, 0 3 4 I think was my time. And I was so close, and we only, I was gone visiting friends for like four days of it, so I didn’t have time in the rig. I I was basically learning ACC for the first time too and I was like, I came back and I just drove for like hours and hours and hours until my brain just like melted and I could not break the 24th.

I didn’t end up breaking it and it was like, it was demoralizing for me. It was really tough. I was just like, wow, I’m just not even good enough to get in the 23s. Like what the heck? And then, um, one of my friends is a, he is a new sports driver and he was like, we literally, cause I track all my times every day.

I track my best time. And I would suggest if you’re getting frustrated with simracing, make a Google Sheet and just put your best time every single day and you will see your improvement. Because if you look at my sheet, even for this challenge, I was starting the 208s, [00:40:00] um, and that was literally the best I could do that day was a 208.

And now I’m in the 206s, um, and hoping to break the 205s soon. Um, and it’s just, but to me it doesn’t feel like I’ve improved that much, but then I look at that timing sheet. And you have to have a clear agreement, like, even if you didn’t, yeah, if you didn’t meet your, your goal, like, I didn’t break into the 123s, but I started at, like, a 127 or something, managed to break it down, so.

Elz Indriani: You kind of have

Emma Galasso: to reevaluate. That’s why it’s good to have friends who race, too, because they can kind of tell you, like, stop beating yourself up and stuff like that.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I feel like your friends can be, like, a really good tool. Mental coach as in like, yeah, because your friends seeing everything like from outside the bubble when you’re like focusing on things your friends can give you like an input like, oh, you know what you’re doing it wrong.

You didn’t realize that in that corner. Yeah, you know, and it really boosts my performance in sim racing since I’m racing or just even just driving or driving [00:41:00] around just being silly. Just, you know, like having like silly battle. It really boost me a lot in sim racing.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, I mean, I have friends in my league who I was so frustrated with Coda.

I was sector three. I just could not get it. And I just had one of my friends hop on my onboard and watch. And he was like, you just have to be more patient. You’re just trying to rush it. You can’t rush it. And it feels like you’re going slower, but you’re actually going faster. And I was like, yeah, yeah, everyone says that.

But then he was in my ear watching me do it. And he’s like, don’t no throttle, wait, just keep waiting. And then finally, it started coming together. And it was like, Oh, You were right the whole time, but I wasn’t going to find it myself. I had to have someone else tell me.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, you need someone else to see from outside to spot like what are your weakness in the track.

Because when you’re driving, you’ll be focusing on, oh yeah, I need to go to this corner, no off track. It depends on what are your goals on your driving. So you won’t pay attention to those, to those details, [00:42:00] I must say, to other details. Yeah. Yeah. And, by the way, speaking about the preparation, going into this qualifying race, how is everything going with you?

Are you ready? Nervous? Going?

Emma Galasso: I mean, the cool thing about, I race every single week, different track, like we do, my league does a different car every season, at different tracks all over the world, so I credit my league to helping me. Kind of be prepared to just jump into races because we only have like a week to prep and then we jump in the race and it’s like full on.

And there’s some people in my league who are alien level, just like, okay. Um, so for this, it’s like definitely, um, I kind of split my practice into qualifying practice and then race pace, because for me with ACC, especially like somebody that I’ll get on ACC and my, like, I can do. Um, A two Oh six one on coda.

And then the next day, the best I could do is like a two Oh seven [00:43:00] nine. And I’m like, why? So it’s all about like momentum. So I always practice qualifying laps first. Maybe it’s just a confidence thing in my brain or whatever. But as soon as I start setting the fast laps, then all of a sudden the time could come down.

But if I just focusing on keeping it clean and like, I just tend to go slower. So yeah, I’ve definitely been prepping more and then. AI races are sort of helpful for ACC. I do that a lot for the Ferrari eSports Challenge, um, our race at Spa. And I had to like relearn Spa cause I had not raced it in a long time.

Um, But it was just, I had my qualifying pace and I knew what line I was supposed to do. But then you have to think about where people are gonna try to overtake you. Are you ready to change your line if somebody’s in the way of your racing line and stuff? So I’m just kind of starting into that practice and figuring it all out for Koda.

But I’ve raced here a lot before and we did a GT4 [00:44:00] series that went to Koda in AC. So I’m quite familiar with, uh, The dive bomb spots and all that. The

Elz Indriani: dive bomb spots at Cota . Yeah. I don’t know. I feel like Kota is, to me, Kota is like the hardest track in United States. It’s not difficult.

Emma Galasso: Mm-hmm. Very

Elz Indriani: technical.

Like, I don’t get the groove around the track. Uh, I just, I’m just Okay. At that track. I don’t even consider myself as,

Emma Galasso: yeah. I, um, like my first sector. Is less than a tenth away from like a 204 lab, but then the rest of it is not. So, my focus has been definitely Sector 2, Sector 3 for sure.

Elz Indriani: Sector 3 is more technical, or at least for me, Sector 3 is my biggest weakness.

For sure. Like, oh god, I don’t, oh god, I’m wishing you good luck, okay? I really hope you’re winning it, you will win [00:45:00] it, and you will represent United States in the global esports game, I would love to see it. Oh my god. We’ll see what happens. Oh my god, that would be like super cool. Okay, Ash, you got another question.

Can Alma, can Emma tell us her least favorite track in ACC and why is it Alton Park? She hasn’t answered yet, Ash.

Emma Galasso: I actually like Alton. See, but to be fair, I haven’t raced in GT3s. We did a TCR series and I’ve done, I think we also did an MX5 series. I liked it. I mean, I shouldn’t say that. It was definitely frustrating, but the races were fun.

And honestly, I haven’t, I haven’t done GT3s on a ton of tracks on ECC, I’ve pretty much only done Misano, Monza, Spa, and Koda, Brands, Hatch, and then a couple other ones, but I literally had to download all of the, [00:46:00] DLC for the Ferrari e sports series because I Didn’t have it. So I was really happy to find that.

I actually had the american track pack for this one. So Sorry, I can’t give you a better answer, but oh, I should oh, that’s a lie My least favorite track is paul ricard 100

Elz Indriani: Oh my god, I had this conversation Everywhere and seems like everybody agreed with you with me. And yeah, everybody said like How

Emma Galasso: was the LFWM, um, like, license track when I was trying to do LFM?

And I was like, how can I be really fast at brands and then just can’t even qualify for LFM at Paul Ricard? It made me so mad.

Elz Indriani: No. French counterpart. Yeah, it is. It’s so confusing, I’m sorry, but if anyone here likes Pole Record, but yeah, I’m sorry. I’m just, let’s say I’m so sucks at it. I’m sucks.

Emma Galasso: [00:47:00] Yeah, I’m not good at it at all.

I haven’t even tried it since, like, it was just embarrassing. I was like, wow, I’m so bad at this.

Elz Indriani: I think in GT3 you can be like, under 2 minutes. What’s the, what’s the fast lap time in Pole Record? But, yeah, it’s like, I’m not good at it.

Emma Galasso: I don’t even remember what my times were at Paul Ricard.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I don’t even remember.

I only raced in

Emma Galasso: ACC. It was so bad that when I looked it up, it like, didn’t even come up as a remotely possible time people were getting. And I was like, okay, I’m just not gonna look at this anymore.

Elz Indriani: The worst French Grand Prix track. Is that track still exists? I mean, I think people still drive in Paul Ricard for endurance or something, right?

I

Emma Galasso: don’t know about endurance, but yeah, I know people definitely, I know people who have actually driven that track in real life. I don’t have any Is

Elz Indriani: that track is still active technically? And maybe we don’t need to tell iRacing that Paul Ricard exists so they won’t [00:48:00] add Paul Ricard to the track. And I hope, or probably in ACC Evo, we won’t have Paul Ricard.

I’m so

Emma Galasso: But a lot of people don’t like Coda either. I mean, Coda’s really I’ve been to the Formula 1 race at Coda. I went in 2018, so I got to see Kimi Raikkonen’s last win in person, which is my big goal for that. Um, and it’s an awesome track to watch a race at. It’s definitely Now it’s a lot more crowded.

In 2018 It was like pre drive to survive. So I remember I walked up to the fan zone. I was 30 minutes before the autograph session and I was front row. And so I got Fernando Alonso’s autograph, just like

Elz Indriani: barely had

Emma Galasso: weight. I was at the airport with Stoffel Van Doorn when he was racing for McLaren. He was just chilling.

Nobody knew who he was. I was behind Lucio Rubinene in the TSA line. Um, I got dropped off in a [00:49:00] Ferrari as I was leaving right in front of me and my dad was so jealous because he wasn’t on the same flight as me and I was like, well I’m gonna go hang out with the Ferrari team. I’m not like that anymore. I haven’t even been to Kota since then.

I’ve been to IMSA races and even IMSA races are getting super packed. I went to Daytona and I went to Petit Le Mans. Oh my god, I’m so jealous of you now. I didn’t even do the gridwalks the past couple times because they’re so packed now. It’s cool because motorsports definitely catching on, which is, which is good, but it was kind of nice seeing

Elz Indriani: it grow, you know, like grow even bigger and bigger because I like the hype and everything, every time I’m going to a racetrack, like, oh my God, it’s so hard to get a merch, you know, like

Emma Galasso: Jonah, my friend had a spot in the Porsche club.

So we like got to hang out with all the Porsche people and just like, Oh, wow. everything and we were right next to the track.

Elz Indriani: Um,

Emma Galasso: it was awesome. But personally, my favorite is Petit Le Mans in Atlanta.

Elz Indriani: So fun. [00:50:00]

Emma Galasso: Yes, absolutely. It’s a 12 hour endurance race. And actually the first time I went was with my racing league.

A bunch of us, um, decided to go to the race together. So I met them all in real life and we just had like a blast at Petit Le Mans and now we go every year. So.

Elz Indriani: Oh my

Emma Galasso: God.

Elz Indriani: I want to go to Petit Le Mans too. Um, it’s a lot. Yeah. I wanted, ah, I think I only went to one IMSA race in Road America. I was still living in Chicago back then, so it was, it was an okay trip to Wisconsin.

But now I live in California. The only option for me is going to Long Beach or going to Sonoma . Mm-hmm . Yeah. Oh my God. So you’ve been to date now? 24.

Emma Galasso: Yeah.

Elz Indriani: How was

Emma Galasso: it? It was a lot of fun. I, like I said, I like Petit Le Mans better. Um, because Petit, you can stay up for the whole race. It’s 12 hours. So you can just like be part of it all.

Oh, [00:51:00] cool. Like it’s definitely a different atmosphere and it’s like kind of amazing. I’ve never been to Daytona before and I can’t imagine what it’s like for the Daytona 500 because. It has got to be crazy for the Daytona 500. It was like just seeing how many empty seats there were for the Rolex 24 compared to Daytona sold out every year, the Daytona 500.

Elz Indriani: Um, it was

Emma Galasso: really cool. It was a really fun time, but I was, I have to say, like, I was less focused on the racing at Daytona and was more focused on like walking around and like doing stuff. Whereas petite, like, You can’t escape the racing and there’s a lot of really cool technical points on track where You can just kind of see all the action So I love it.

Elz Indriani: I bet and especially like you have the You have the gt3 gtp racing in road atlanta. Oh my god I

Emma Galasso: actually went to the ferrari challenge race at road atlanta as well.

Elz Indriani: Oh It

Emma Galasso: was not very packed at all it was very empty and I got to I actually got to sit in a couple ferraris because I [00:52:00] just ended up talking to the Ferrari people.

They had a Puro Sangue there. So I was like, Oh, this is really cool. Um, and so there’s, it was definitely a different vibe though. Like it really wasn’t all about like, I don’t know how to explain it. It was just a different vibe. So I like it better, but it was cool. Like, it was really cool to see the Ferrari challenge in person.

Around Ferraris is always cool.

Elz Indriani: The real race is the MX 5 in IMSA. Yeah, I must say, the real race is the MX 5.

Emma Galasso: One of the MX 5 races is terrifying. Like, I don’t know how those guys do it. And it is crazy. Like, the bumper to Like, they’re just Yeah, I can’t do it. That would freak me out. And I would also immediately wreck out the person behind me because they’d be trying to draft me and I would brake too early and just

Elz Indriani: Oh no!

The MX 5 is going like six wide into turn one. Yeah, I mean, oh my god at first when I first watching the MX 5 at Daytona honestly, I was quite skeptical because okay MX 5. Okay. Let’s see what we got [00:53:00] and I think it was like 40 minutes race, I believe in Daytona MX 5 and it was like full of full of like drafting close racing and I was like, wow, I changed my mind.

I’m humbled bro. I’m like,

Emma Galasso: yeah. I think it’s Erdalina too, 24 Hours of Lemons, where you have your car, it has to be under 500, and you just race. That one seems fun, I haven’t been to it, but a couple of my friends wanted to actually do the race. And I was like, look, I like sim racing, I don’t really think I’m gonna get in a real car, especially a 500 car, and actually race people, but people love it, so.

Elz Indriani: I would love to, lowkey I want to get into that. Lowkey, I wanna build a Lambo.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, people make some amazing cars. They decorate them really cool.

Elz Indriani: That’s how

Emma Galasso: actual racing is, because half the time you’re just trying to keep your car alive till the end.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to keep your car alive, true.

And, [00:54:00] Ash, guess what? Yeah, you’re saying, by the way, you’re saying like, yeah, this MX 5 going six wide into turn one in Daytona. And you should see the MX 5 going five wide. Into the SS at the Glen. Oh my God. It’s just crazy. I love, I love watching them. It’s five days, but I don’t like driving the MX five because I’m bad.

Yeah.

Emma Galasso: It’s like, like I said, like it was fun. Our lead did spec, um, we did spec me out as, and then we did MX five cup cars or something, and it was fun. My league was doing it. Cause everyone, like, I don’t know, cause I know all of them and we all just have a good time all the time. Yeah. But iRacing, like, you’re, it’s a lot more by yourself, and all of my League buddies are like, have an insane iRating, and I’m just like, I haven’t even attempted to work on my iRating, because that’s what kind of stresses me out about iRacing, it’s like, I don’t want to do bad in the race and ruin my iRating, and they’re like, don’t even think about it, just, just race, and the iRating will come later, but it still [00:55:00] stresses me out.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I’m still thinking about it sometimes, and I’m still like, sometimes I get mad about it, like, uh, it’s not like I’m mad. I’m feeling mad to other, to another people, but it’s more like, how can I be this sucks? I can do better. It’s, you know, that feeling sometimes. Yeah,

Emma Galasso: for sure. Um,

Elz Indriani: like I’m blaming myself.

Like if I’m like losing a lot, I’ll be like, okay, else your sucks. Like,

Emma Galasso: but yeah, it’s really easy to get into, like I was in a pretty negative mindset two days ago with my hot lapping time. I literally thought I was never going to, Breaking the 206s. I was like, I can’t do it. I’m stuck. I can’t do it. And then I got a 206 9 and then the next day I got a 206 7, the next day a 206 5.

Nice. Have to keep Sometimes you do need to step away. You have to step away from your rig for a minute and take a breather and come back because if you’re driving really angry, it’s not really gonna

Elz Indriani: work. True. Actually, I [00:56:00] took a coaching session lately. Like, I went on I just want to get good in driving the Porsche car.

That’s why I took the coaching session. And this is what I learned from my coach. Instead of like, you’re actually pushing yourself after this coaching session, why don’t you take a break, go to sleep, come back later. Come back in the morning. I tried to follow that and I improved more than when I was like pushing myself real hard.

Really.

Emma Galasso: It’s really, I mean, racing is just such a, like I said, it’s like learning a language. So you got to give your, your brain can’t process it. Like sleep helps your brain process it. So there’s all kinds of stuff going on in the background that you’re not paying attention to because I try to push it.

When I was driving brands hash, I was driving it like four hours a day, trying to get a better time. And it was not good. I just couldn’t get better because I just was pushing too much.

Elz Indriani: Luka! Hi, hi! No, you’re not late. We’re having a chat, but I think we’re all maybe like we’re like 15 [00:57:00] 20 minutes done because Emma, our guest, is currently on her lunch break.

So we’re like kidnapping Emma for this podcast. So she got to go. Get back to work after this. So but you’re not late. You’re not late You still have time to hang out here, by the way. Hi luka Very nice to have you here with emma the driver for the us online qualifier for the upcoming global esports games Hi luka.

Hi. Hi So emma, by the way Speaking about the racetrack we talk about imsa. We talk about yeah, imsa daytona roller planta everything Then it got me thinking what are your favorite tracks in real life? And why? Other than attending the event, let’s talk about the track itself. I don’t

Emma Galasso: know, I think, I mean this is going to sound really cliche, but I really like Monaco.

Just for the history of Monaco, but also when you do a really good lap around Monaco, it’s a pretty cool feeling. [00:58:00] Great. Um, so Monaco is probably one, and then, I haven’t been to it though, but my favorite track that I’ve ever been to probably is Monza.

Elz Indriani: Oh, wow. What? Monza

Emma Galasso: is really cool, and if you ever go, you can go to the old banking.

And I went to the old banking, and, um, yeah, I was just, it’s, it’s really cool. Um, so yeah, that would be probably my two favorite European tracks, sorry. But, but yeah.

Elz Indriani: Have you ever been to any F1 race in, in the Europe or not yet?

Emma Galasso: Not in Europe. I was, funny story. I was, my friend, I have friends in Italy who live in Milan.

Um, actually my friend Lux is the one who drew the Monza poster for Ferrari, this for the past race. Wow. Um, so Lux and I hang out all the time whenever I go to, to Italy and, uh, they took me [00:59:00] to Monza. Uh, I’ve been to Monza. Twice now? Yeah, twice. And it’s just been really cool. So, I’m always invited to Monza, but I haven’t been able to go.

Um, I did ask if I could go hang out in the Ferrari, um, hospitality with Lux this past time, but, obviously, that didn’t happen. Um, yeah, and then I have, uh, friends who live by Zandvoort and stuff, so I have friends around, I just have to, like, just hang out. Give a goal, make it out there. Yeah. Yeah. Make a

Elz Indriani: plan and visit.

Emma Galasso: Because it’s actually like I went to Coda, I don’t mind saying this. When I went to Dakota in 2018, I bought tickets, three day tickets that were at turned 15, like mm-hmm . Where all the crowds were happening, and we got to see a Bruno Mars concert and it was $500 for the whole weekend .

Elz Indriani: Um,

Emma Galasso: and now those same seats are $1,600 just for one day.

Elz Indriani: Wow.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, that’s unaffordable in the U. S., which I really hate. [01:00:00] It’s actually cheaper to go to Europe, to fly to Europe and go to a race and come back than it is to go, to just get tickets in the U. S. So, I don’t think we’ll be a European race unless I get invited to a U. S. race to go for free, because otherwise I’m not paying for it.

Sorry.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, the price is crazy. And you’re right, I feel like it’s cheaper for us right now to travel to Europe and get the Evo ticket. One, there’s a lot of race in the Europe more than the United States, and there are like a lot of, or there are some tickets that is affordable. I think Zandvoort is one of them, I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, but Zandvoort is one of

Emma Galasso: the I know the Monza is actually pretty affordable still, like, they just, they’re upping the prices a little bit every year, but Yeah, this year my friends were like, oh my gosh, Monza is so expensive, it’s like 250 for the weekend, and I was like Wait till

Elz Indriani: you see Texas, Vegas.

I don’t know about Miami. I’m not sure about [01:01:00] Miami. Miami

Emma Galasso: is pretty expensive. I had friends who went to the very first Miami race. Uh, they, I could have bought a ticket for 800 for the whole weekend, but I was like, um, I don’t really like going to Florida in general. So, sorry.

Elz Indriani: Las Vegas Grand Prix is out then.

Yeah. I’m having a mixed feeling about the last Vegas, okay? First of all, I know everybody been complaining about the policy and everything, everything that is going on in Vegas during the race weekend, which everybody hates that, which I understand that, but the race itself was actually pretty good. The race was kind of like, paid off to me, at least last year.

So I don’t know about this year, quite hoping. Yeah.

Emma Galasso: I just wish that. Formula one wasn’t getting so prohibitive, everyone, um, it’s just like, I don’t know. But then it is like weird, like going to the race at Coto was super fun and it was like [01:02:00] an absolute blast, but

Elz Indriani: mm-hmm .

Emma Galasso: I still like watching it at home ’cause you get all the action.

I mean, rcs even had like the big screen so we could pretty much watch the whole thing

Elz Indriani: on screen. But it’s different. Yeah,

Emma Galasso: it’s definitely different.

Elz Indriani: At least for me, going to racetrack, it’s like. Feels like going to Disneyland. It’s more like the experience, like you’re walking from, even from the parking lot to the, to the entrance and then like you walk around.

I know, I know like, yeah, we will see more action on TV, but sometimes I like to go to racetrack to listen to the sound of the car. Yeah,

Emma Galasso: the sound is cool. There’s nothing, the sound.

Elz Indriani: Like, sometimes I’m just like, I don’t know. I just want to sit down and like, Oh my God, just enjoy the car goes fast. You know?

Oh yeah.

Emma Galasso: Daytona is really cool for that because you just can’t watch it for 24 hours straight. Like some people do, but we were just like sitting in lawn chairs, like hanging out and cars are just like flying by, but you get super dirty [01:03:00] because, uh, like Rubbers flying off the track. You don’t even see it and by the end of the day, you’re like wiping your face off and it’s all black

Elz Indriani: Oh my god.

Oh my god First of all gene, thank you so much for subscribing to our channel to init esports. Thank you so much Love you. I really appreciate you and second Taylor Mills. Thank you so much. Oh my god, Taylor. Thank you so much for the rate. Oh my god We hit 50 viewers here. Oh my god. I’m super happy. Oh my god Very nice to have you all here today.

Meet my new friend. Emma. Oh my god. Hi everyone. Thank you so much Thank you so much taylor for trusting your community to this channel. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you And hello everyone. Welcome to init talks. Oh my god. We’re having a chat with emma right now Oh my god, how’s it going, you guys?

How’s it going? So, we are having a chat about, basically right now we are having Emma as our guest and we are having a chat about ACC F1. [01:04:00] Well, now we are talking about the F1 race. So, I hope you guys really enjoy your time here, okay? Enjoy your time here, you all. I love you guys so much. Thank you, thank you.

Yeah, by the way, oh my god, I got distracted, but thank you so much again for all the support. I really appreciate you guys So I’m by the way speaking about your goal. Do you what are your goals? Do you wanna be a race car driver one day?

Emma Galasso: um, no, that’s not I started sim racing just because I saw it as a completely new challenge, and I just wanted to prove to myself that I can learn something completely new.

And it doesn’t matter how old you are when you start, you can still be My dad can probably still beat me on a track, and he has been playing Gran Turismo on controller since like, Playstation 2 days. Um, And it’s just like, there’s plenty, there’s so many people. It’s like, I feel [01:05:00] like there’s so many barriers to entry in sim racing.

And I just kind of wanted to show that it doesn’t matter when you start, as long as you dedicate time to it and enjoy it, like you can get anywhere. So my goal is to be, I mean, obviously I want to win. There’s no question, but, um, I want to win on, on my terms, having documented the whole journey to get there, just to kind of, I don’t know how long it’s gonna take.

I remember when I first started I was like, I’m gonna be I wanted to be a formula one esports like world champion and now i’m like Jarno Otmir pretty much has that one down so he can Do that. I will stick to what i’m doing and if I can win a race in my league I’ll be set. That would be a pretty pretty cool thing for me

Elz Indriani: um, maybe Maybe you will be in the women division in the qualifying race.

We never know Right? Maybe you will get your win in a few days from now, right? I think the race will be on 21st, [01:06:00] right? On the 21st and 22nd? Something like that? Definitely have

Emma Galasso: to do to get there.

Elz Indriani: Counting days, oh my god, oh my god. I really hope you’re going to at least have a good result, you know? And I’m wishing you having a good time.

That’s the most

Emma Galasso: important thing. It’s been really cool so far. It’s cool. The esports community is small, but, um, it’s, it’s a really good community to be part of. So you can really do a lot with it. Like that’s what’s been so cool for me. It’s like, I never have a problem reaching out to people. So like I’ve talked to the Ferrari esports team.

Um, I’ve talked to the Porsche esports people, like just, just because I reached out and was like, Hey, Hey, This is cool. I’m not any good, but I’d love to talk to you guys. People are down for it, so. Right. Yeah, there’s a lot of opportunities. And we’ll see if I can make it a little bit more worth their while.

Trying to get a we’ll see. [01:07:00]

Elz Indriani: You know what, sometimes you just have to Well I don’t know how to say it. Sometimes you just have to ask. Or you just have to start the conversation. Sometimes Absolutely. People are Sometimes people are, well, I myself feeling nervous too sometimes when I’m about to talk to big people in motorsport.

But, you know, people are very nice. People are very welcoming. Even if you’re a newbie in this motorsport, like, don’t be afraid. Sometimes you just have to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and reach out.

Emma Galasso: You can always ask. I even have a little story about this. So that’s it. I signed Sebastian Vettel driver card from when he drove for Ferrari.

And the reason, he sent it to me in the mail. Because I, he used to have like an address where you could just write him like a letter or something. And he was retiring, so my friends and I were just like, oh we’ll just write Sebastian a letter. So I just wrote him a letter and I was like, hey, like, it was so great to watch you [01:08:00] race in 2018.

Like, I wish I would have been able to get your, um, autograph from Ferrari, but I never had the chance because I was too busy doing other stuff. But the Ferrari fan zone was packed, whatever. And then like three months later, he sent Aston Martin driver cards, but he also included a Ferrari driver card. So he actually read the letter and saw that I didn’t get his signature when he drove for Ferrari.

So he sent me that. So you always just have to ask. You never know what’s going to happen.

Elz Indriani: True. You have to ask. And it’s free. It costs you nothing to ask questions, guys.

Emma Galasso: All the coolest things that ever happened in my life, I just asked for them.

Elz Indriani: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, don’t worry, trust me guys. Even though that you guys see me every week, or almost every day I’m streaming, and you can see that I’m like, hey everyone, but in real life, I feel nervous a lot, you know, like, oh god, I’m nervous of this, nervous of that.

But I’m learning today from Emma, like, yeah, don’t be afraid to ask questions. If Emma can do it, we can [01:09:00] do it.

Emma Galasso: Yep. Absolutely. Definitely. If I could do it, you guys could do it. Trust me.

Elz Indriani: And again, by the way guys, if you guys are active on TikTok, feel free to give Emma and Init Esports a follow on TikTok.

Because yeah, we’ll be posting like a lot of video, more like a video on TikTok. Well, on Instagram also for us, on Init Esports and Screen2Speed. But if you want to follow Emma’s journey in simracing, you can find her on TikTok at Bellissima. racing Did Emma race in the F1 series? No, I don’t think Emma was racing in F1 series.

Nope.

Emma Galasso: This is only the second, like, actual, well, I guess third actual competition thing that I’ve ever done.

Elz Indriani: Right, so the USAF qualifier is the third. Boom, event. I’m wishing you tons of luck. Oh my god. Honestly, I’m sucks at quali. So if there is like a competition that [01:10:00] requires you to do the online quali, I’m like 70 percent I’m not gonna qualify.

I’m more like focused on consistency instead of like pushing the pushing the car, you know.

Emma Galasso: For

Elz Indriani: everyone who passed the qualifying, you guys are so fantastic.

Emma Galasso: It’s definitely, it’s a completely different mindset. And there’s a lot of people, like, that’s how my friends always tell me, like, yeah, there’s always going to be people who are super fast hot lappers, but it doesn’t mean they know how to race.

So you just have to practice everything.

Elz Indriani: True. I guess you need to find, like, what are your weakness and what are your greatness, as in, like, what are you good at? And to me, I like to maximize what I’m good at. And compromise a bit on my weakness, you know? Like, yeah. It’s more like trying to find a balance instead of like trying to be good at everything.

I like to focus on Yeah, my race pace in in this case

Emma Galasso: and I’d also say like, you know when you’re just starting out you still have to figure out the fundamentals, but At [01:11:00] some point you do get to your own driving style where other people’s advice won’t actually help you get faster um, take it with a grain of salt because a lot of times people are telling you the right thing to do but there’s been times where One of my friends who is like a professional esports person that watched me do a line and he was like, I didn’t even know you could do that line, but it’s actually just fast, so keep doing it, I guess.

You can, you can always figure out your own thing.

Elz Indriani: I hear Vettel could be coming back to F1? I read, I saw like some posts on internet a bit about, about Vettel, but I don’t know if, if he’s gonna make a comeback. to motorsport or something.

Emma Galasso: I could, I think, I could see him coming back to motorsport, but I don’t know about F1.

I

Elz Indriani: feel

Emma Galasso: like F1 is just such a different sport now that, I don’t know, it’s

Elz Indriani: Right, right, right. I get you. I get you. [01:12:00] I hope to see Emma around in as many of the STS series as she can do. Amen to that, Luca. Amen. Emma is really fantastic. If you’re on TikTok, again,

Emma Galasso: give her a follow. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

I actually do have to run. I just got an email that I have to respond to, though. Right, right.

Elz Indriani: Okay, um, okay, so let’s say we are down to the last question now. Um, alright, so, um, let’s see. Okay. I’m gonna, I’m gonna pick the last question, um, from the, from the chat. Okay. So we can feel more. Oh, related.

Relatable. Hi Luka. So F1, ACC. So what other platforms do you raise? And is, okay, I will add that to another, I will add the question from Luka. So if there’s like one sim that you want to master, you want to be very good at it, what would it be?

Emma Galasso: Um, [01:13:00] Well, this is going to sound bad because it’s the one I’m least experienced with, but iRacing, because everything is moving towards iRacing now.

And I feel like I kind of missed the boat on ACC. ACC used to be like, I feel like the top thing that everyone was driving. But now it seems like esports teams, um, in general are like moving towards iRacing. So I definitely have to get into that. So if I could master any, it would be that. But also, an unrelated sim, but Richard Burns Rally, um, which like, only exists on the, you know, nooks and crannies of the internet now.

Um, if I could ever be good at that, I’d be really proud of myself, but rally is very difficult and a completely different ballgame, but.

Elz Indriani: Right. I’m really looking forward to see you joining iRacing for sure. Like, so whenever you’re Getting your subscription on iRacing and you feel like you want to race, feel free to reach out to us On discord at init esports.

[01:14:00] So maybe we can like, I don’t know, even just having like a fun lobby with friends You know, like having fun being silly around Yeah, we always welcome you by the way

Emma Galasso: Thank you so much. Yeah, I love, I would love to do something like that, because iRacing is just a lot more lonely of a sim for me, so.

Elz Indriani: You won’t feel lonely anymore, don’t worry.

You will find Because in eSports, I can say, like, our player base is really big in iRacing. So you won’t feel lonely. Yeah. You will find, you will always find, like, someone to play with in iRacing.

Emma Galasso: Yeah, I’ll definitely hit you

Elz Indriani: up then. Yeah. By the way, guys, guess what? Emma, so, again, Luca, we kidnapped Emma. So, she’s like, in the middle of lunch break, and instead of having lunch, she’s having a podcast with us.

But now I have to let her go because she you need to get back to work, right? It’s not even the weekend. Yeah Yeah Thank you so much [01:15:00] emma. Thank you so much for your time today. so much And thank you

Emma Galasso: everyone. I appreciate all your time and questions. Super cool

Elz Indriani: Thank you. Thank you quick emma go it can run on an empty stomach.

Yeah, we need to let emma go guys Thank you so much for hanging today. I really appreciate you all Thank you for the sub. Thank you for the for the rate and everything. I love you guys so much and yeah, I will see you, not I, but we’ll see you, we’ll see you on the next episode of init talks. Okay. Yes, this is my last one.

So I’m gonna say goodbye. I’m signing off from init talks, but it was a really nice talk to having Emma as the guest. But yeah, I’m wishing you all the best and Yeah, bye bye everyone. Love you guys. Thank you so much, Emma. Bye bye.

Emma Galasso: Hey guys, thank you. Appreciate it.

Elz Indriani: Bye. Love you guys.[01:16:00]

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